Skin Problems Dandruff and massive amounts of shedding!

LightningPig1 · Aug 21, 2014

While I was holding Thunder today, I noticed he was shedding massive amounts of hair! If I just skim my fingers through a portion of his hair, I easily pull out a whole bunch it. Not to mention dandruff (I'm assuming) comes off with it. I checked to see how his skin is and it didn't look good. There is dandruff covering his whole body. I must admit, I haven't been committed to the care of my guinea pigs as of lately as I should be, so I probably would have discovered this earlier, but I haven't noticed any scratching or bald patches of skin. I didn't see any sign of movement (thinking that it could be lice or fleas), just lots of 'shedding' and dandruff. I was thinking, maybe mites? But if that were the case, I'd see scratching. Perhaps he has dry skin? I'm clueless as to what this could be. Any help or ideas would be appreciated!

bpatters · Aug 21, 2014

Is he getting enough vitamins and minerals? What exactly do you feed him? Brands and amounts?

You could try bathing him with an antifungal shampoo, like Nizoral, if you can find it. Soap him up well, leave it on him for 10 minutes (you'll have to hold him), and then rinse REALLY well.

LightningPig1 · Aug 21, 2014

bpatters said:
Is he getting enough vitamins and minerals? What exactly do you feed him? Brands and amounts?

You could try bathing him with an antifungal shampoo, like Nizoral, if you can find it. Soap him up well, leave it on him for 10 minutes (you'll have to hold him), and then rinse REALLY well.

Huh. It's very possible he hasn't been. I've been very lazy with his diet. For veggies I feed him 2-3 leaves of romaine lettuce and alternate carrot and tomato. Every now and then I will give him bell pepper and cilantro. I am fully aware I should be feeding him a lot more variety.
For pellets, I feed him 1/8th cup Cavy Cuisine Oxbow pellets per day, and for hay I feed him Kaytee. Again, I know Kaytee is awful quality. I'm going to start feeding him a better, balanced diet.

I will try to find the Nizoral and use that.

Thank you so much.

PrincessAngel · Aug 21, 2014

When my pig had a fungal infection her hair was coming off in clumps and there was lots of "dandruff" and shedding. I got Nizoral at my local grocery store, it's with anti-dandruff shampoo's. I ended up bathing her with it 2 or 3 times ever 10 days to make sure it was gone. She has weird skin and when things start popping up again I rub organic coconut oil on it everyday until it recedes.

CavyCarver1612 · Nov 5, 2014

My two piggies have the same. The larger, fluffier one has LOTS more dandruff. Whereas the other has hardly anything. I'm going to de flea them (just incase) and I will give them a bath- thank you for recommending Nizoral! I will try it out, any other suggestions for what I should do?

Rywen · Nov 5, 2014

Be very careful with de-fleaing, most of the things for cats and dogs are toxic for guinea pigs. I wouldn't do anything for fleas unless you see actual fleas.

bpatters · Nov 6, 2014

Don't treat them for fleas unless they've actually got them. Fleas are easy to detect because they crawl around and leave flea dirt everywhere. Guinea pigs are really very fragile when it comes to coping with medication, and most things shouldn't be given unless they actually need them.

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Skin Problems Dandruff and massive amounts of shedding!

LightningPig1

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bpatters

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LightningPig1

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PrincessAngel

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CavyCarver1612

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Rywen

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bpatters

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